So what Starter Kit Scenario have you played recently?

[ireland94]

sunoftzu, an effective defense for the Americans in S4 is from the 10-2/667/HMG and 8-1/666/MMG to run back to into P1, run a 747/FT in to Z1, a 666/ MMG in V6, 8-0 and 3 546s run back into I2, 747/FT in H3. Of course the American setup does not allow initial placement in all these hexes but they are good positions to keep the horde at bay. I have seen this or similar defenses with kill stack in P1 and V6/V3, FTs on the wings work repeatedly. Of course if the dice gods are against the Americans, there is little that can be done. I tutor newbies in SK and this is the defense I suggest. I have never seen it broken by me or another player when even average rolls are made by the Americans. Let me know what you think by pm.

[Wiltshiresaint]

Completed S1 solo a couple of weeks back. Very narrow victory for the Germans, who ended the final turn occupying the south eastern-most victory objective building. Yanks were set to take the building (and did so next turn. Yes, I misunderstood the scenario card and played an 'extra turn') but just hadn't got into position quick enough, which seems to be THE key issue in this scenario.

Interesting scenario though, my first completed ASL game. Intelligent movement is key for both sides. Relaised how devastating those US elite squads can be when a few can combine their firepower to attack a strongly defended hex, but also how a well-placed unit with a decent leader can slow down the advance of a numerically superior enemy. Really enjoyed playing through it.

Currently PBEMing S2 and S3. Doing well in the former, about to get stuffed in the latter after a very poor setup.

[custardpie]

Completed S1 solo a couple of weeks back. Very narrow victory for the Germans, who ended the final turn occupying the south eastern-most victory objective building. Yanks were set to take the building (and did so next turn. Yes, I misunderstood the scenario card and played an 'extra turn') but just hadn't got into position quick enough, which seems to be THE key issue in this scenario.

Interesting scenario though, my first completed ASL game. Intelligent movement is key for both sides. Relaised how devastating those US elite squads can be when a few can combine their firepower to attack a strongly defended hex, but also how a well-placed unit with a decent leader can slow down the advance of a numerically superior enemy. Really enjoyed playing through it.

Currently PBEMing S2 and S3. Doing well in the former, about to get stuffed in the latter after a very poor setup.

More games are lost on set up than through bad dice. I am much better on attack than defence, averaging just under 50% win loss on defence. Something I am working on.

You seem to have a good grasp on the basic's, have you been playing long?

Ian

[Wiltshiresaint]

You seem to have a good grasp on the basic's, have you been playing long?

Ian

My set up error was of the most basic kind - I didn't read the scenario card properly!

I played SL, COI and COD back in the 80s so the turn processes weren't completely new to me. I also dabbled with ASL in the early noughties, but only really decided time was right to really get to grips with ASL via the Starter Kits a couple of months ago.

[custardpie]

My set up error was of the most basic kind - I didn't read the scenario card properly!

I played SL, COI and COD back in the 80s so the turn processes weren't completely new to me. I also dabbled with ASL in the early noughties, but only really decided time was right to really get to grips with ASL via the Starter Kits a couple of months ago.

I don'tknow HOW many times I have made THAT mistake!!!!

Whilst SL etc. give good grounding ASL (even SK) are so much more refined it is a credit to your getting the handle on the game. I found my playing of the SL system actually hindered some of my progress and occasionally still a SL varient rule will pop back into my head making my feel less than clever.

Cheers
Ian

[Train1811]

Yesterday I played S41 Sink's Encouragement out of the SK1 Bonus Pack.
It's a very hard scenario for the American player, specially when your artillery strike in PFPh 1 just pins a Leader....
The 2 german LMGs and the MMG had a superb position. Over this, they always kept ROF by rolling snake eyes. Nearly all my NMC ended in a break with ELR.

Before German turn 3 I gave up there have been to much people lost their lives.

Possibly when artillery achieves more damage at the beginning you can put all your manpower to make a breakthrough in one area to get into the city for better cover.
We'll see next week.

[sunoftzu]

Yesterday I played S41 Sink's Encouragement out of the SK1 Bonus Pack.
It's a very hard scenario for the American player, specially when your artillery strike in PFPh 1 just pins a Leader....
The 2 german LMGs and the MMG had a superb position. Over this, they always kept ROF by rolling snake eyes. Nearly all my NMC ended in a break with ELR.

Before German turn 3 I gave up there have been to much people lost their lives.

Possibly when artillery achieves more damage at the beginning you can put all your manpower to make a breakthrough in one area to get into the city for better cover.
We'll see next week.

Hi,

I played this one a couple of times, too (see post #92 of this thread), and had similar experiences.

John.

[sunoftzu]

Hi,

Saturday before last, Mike, David and I did a 3 player game of S-7 "Ambitious Assault". David took the Italians, Mike had the Americans, and I got the (turn 4 arriving) British.

The overall Allied strategy was to wear down the Italians in the early game, so as to compromise the defense and allow for an effective overrun once the British arrived. I figured that this approach would suit well the strengths of the Americans, who are heavily outnumbered at the start.

However, the well organized Italians had other ideas. Firstly, the American DRs were a bit cold, and the Italians even passed a few MCs along the way, enabling a solid defensive line, and the establishment of interior lines. This is so crucial if the Italians are to have any hope of rallying (which simply isn't going to happen if kept under DM).

David probably rallied as many as 4 squads in this scenario, and that simply gave the British too much to do when they arrived. The last Allied turn demanded that they reduce 6 Italian strongpoints, and it was not to be. Credit to a well organized defense.

Thursday last week Mike and I played S-4 "Welcome Back", German balance in effect (-1 US FT). Mike played the Germans, and I played Americans. Mike's attack was basically MG teams advancing along row Z, and the rest went 'Human-Wave' style through the extreme north flank ,which was defended by 2 546 squads.

Well, the first turn was entertaining, as my 546s and their residual broke about 8 of the charging 447 squads, but they themselves broke on FPF shots. My leader-directed MG teams meanwhile had little effect on their own counterparts, and I even malfunctioned 2 of my MGs. One CXing 447 got through to make sure that I wouldn't be able to rout them back to the 8-0, but at the end of the turn 1 American RPh, there were 3 broken squad equivalents with a GO 7-0 in hexes ff10 and gg10 (a couple of 6 drs also Xed my .50cal, and a MMG in the same phase - "ouch"!!). So, instead of my 8-0 hanging around trying to rally (what would be DMed) 546s, he raced towards ff9. All I had to do was survive in GO a 2-1 shot, but unfortunately my leader broke. Too bad, as he would have eliminated 6 squads in the RtPh. Have to try for those every time!!!!

The American luck didn't get much better; later even the 10-2 couldn't shoot well, nor pass much in the way of return fire but despite setbacks of losing both MGs early and my under-performing leaders, the Americans were holding the Germans at bay as late as turn 5 (when I finally had a bit of luck in breaking up the German MG groups which had whittled down my modest OoB).

However, on the last turn (6), the remaining Germans rushed the exit area, and there were simply too many to stop. Yet again, my Americans get close, but not quite good enough. But I must be doing some things right if I can give these under-achievers some sort of chance after being in a deep hole. Good scenarios, but on to S-5 ("Clearing Colleville") now.

John.

[sunoftzu]

Hi,

Just finished playing S-10 "Paper Army", with David as Greeks, myself as Italians. It's quite a good little game of cat and mouse, with each side rather anxious of falling behind.

I organized the Italians into 4 stacks:

8-0, mmg/347, lmg/347, 347 (15 FP, 7 exit VP)
8-0, lmg/347, 347, 347 (11 FP, 7 exit VP)
7-0, 347, 347, 137, 137 (8 FP, 7 exit VP)
7-0, 347, 347, 137, 137 (8 FP, 7 exit VP)

The 8-0 groups were intended to play the rear guard, while the 7-0 stacks tried to hop it off the board as fast as possible (don't think for a minute that they were always stacked this way; this is just my way of breaking them down into organizational groups).

Well, as the game played out, the Greeks made the withdraw of the rearguard rather difficult, but likewise, the rearguard kept all but the flanking group from interfering with the 7-0 led exit groups. I probably had the better of the DRs through most of the game, but not by any big margin, and when it got down to turn 6 (the last turn), I had 16 Exit VPs in position to exit off (mostly in the x7-x10 woods), and the Greeks were down to a lone GO lmg/457 squad in bb6, and some 'blocking' help from a broken unit in cc10 (meaning it would at the very least stop units moving through its hex).

Last movement phase:

137 exits unchallenged, 1 VP, 9 more to win
137 exits unchallenged, 1 VP, 8 more to win
7-0 exits unchallenged, 1 VP, 7 more to win
347 exits unchallenged, 2 VP, 5 more to win
347 exits unchallenged, 2 VP, 3 more to win
347 exits unchallenged, 2 VP, 1 more to win
347 tries to exit, but takes 4-2 from lmg as he passes bb7. DR 1,2 = KIA, no cower, ROF (so no D1F counter, nor any adjacent enemy to reduce SFF options), Huge time to come up with _that_ DR; the last 5 VP must move as a stack to exit, too.
8-0, 347, 347 tries to exit. Takes 6-2 D1F in z9. DR 5,2 = 1MC. TTB DR 1,4 4,5 1,5 (pass, ELR-bk, pin). The squads are stopped, but the 8-0 continues and takes 2+1 SFF in bb9. DR 2,1 = 1MC. 8-0 DR 1,5 pass (barely), and the 8-0 races off for the 10th and winning VP!!!

A great little scenario, if you like the cat-and -mouse stuff (am hoping my AAR is able to portray the on-edge last MPh of the game for you; knowledge of some VASL acronyms an advantage ) Looking forward to playing this one again. But then again, I am rather bias; I have been a HUGE fan of Italian scenarios since getting "Hollow Legions" back in 1989, when living in Wellington, New Zealand.

John Knowles.

[sunoftzu]

Gee, guess I'm the only one reporting SK scenarios at the moment....

Played S-11 "A Long Way To Go" vs David (him as German) to introduce David to ordinance in ASLSK.

To win, the Americans must stop 9 VP exiting across a 17 hex-row playing area (essentially half a board).

13 German vs 6 American squad-equivalents for 6.5 turns.

I set up the 8-0 leader, mortar and a half-squad in gg4 (with the other half-squad nearby as a backup), a covering squad in ee7, and the rest of the squads in z7, z8, aa7, bb6. The idea was that the mortar would prevent the Germans massing in the eastern woods (rows z, aa, bb), and the squads on the small hill would stop quick movement along the 2 southbound roads whilst allowing good rout/fall back (to dd7) positions when things got too hot.

Well, on turn 1, the defense did exactly what it was supposed to do. The Germans largely avoided the woods, and tried to keep out of LOS, with a few audacious squads trying to slink along the stone building block (u7-v6-w7). I had positioned bazookas (in z7) to discourage this, but when the German ran the gauntlet, I couldn't quite roll low enough to make him pay. The Americans largely were able to safely withdraw to dd7, and my defense came together for a while. The Americans broke plenty of Germans, but they rallied quicky, and got a few key DRs on attack, too. In the end, the Americans simply couldn't rally as fast as the Germans, and right when I really needed the mortar to come through for me........................................

Boxcars.

The Americans crumbled into a self-survival hedgehog around the c7 building by turn 5, and the Germans exited 14 VPs down the eastern flank, virtually unopposed during the turn 6 MPh. A very convincing win for the Germans.

A lot of unit replacements were rolled, too (both sides would have ELRed about half of their OoBs; not so hard to do when both sides have ELR 2). Nonetheless, I think I got the essence of the scenario, and it seems to play quite well. Too bad the ordinance didn't have any impact (about 2 mortar hits for NE); but I expect that'll change in the next one (S-12).

John Knowles.